Robert Durham, language arts teacher, has been in comedy for 17 years. Endless jokes, plot lines, and new material. His performances at Sky Music Lounge have lasted well into the night as he strives to perfect his art.

For Durham’s fifth hour Creative Writing class, it took just one day to go viral. The 45 second video has received over 48,000 views, 500 likes and 60 comments since its initial post on Feb. 11.

It all started when Durham viewed a video of an elementary school teacher performing special handshakes with each of his students as they walked into class in the morning.

“I saw two other videos online of teachers with elementary school teachers with kids doing really cool handshakes when they were coming into a classroom,” Durham said. “ I thought, well that’s nice that kids still enjoy school. In highs school, I’m greeted with nothing every morning so it’s kind of a nice parody.”

Durham said his intuition allowed him the knowledge that his video would go viral prior to his informing the class of their impending shoot.

“A few of them may have had their doubts,” Durham said. “But, we did creative writing, and we each thought of our role in the video, what kind of high five, who would be on their phone, and we actually organized it pretty well.”

Durham credited the class for making the filming process smooth and amiable.

“We did a couple practice runs but once we got the camera it took us two takes to get it right,” Durham said.

He said he was excited with the attention the film has been receiving, jokingly admonishing himself for failing to capitalize on the video with other means.

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever had go viral,” Durham said. “It’s kind of neat to get my fifteen minutes of fame I don’t know if it’ll lead to anything. I should’ve timed it with my upcoming book release.”

Mandar Bhoyar, senior, said he has a theory for how the video caught steam throughout social media circles himself. As for his reaction to the class’ newfound fame, Bhoyar said that he is using his role to train others in the limelight.

“I’m used to the fame,” Bhoyar said. “It’s nothing new. I’m just training Mr. Durham on how to handle fame.”

Bhoyar played the part of a student who rubbed his glasses on Mr. Durham’s shirt rather than shaking the teacher’s hand.

“I walked in on the day we were shooting and Mr. Durham said I had to dab,” Bhoyar said. “I was finally offered the role to wipe my glasses on his shirt, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.”

All stats accurate as of Feb. 13.